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1993-09-03
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Honto v0.96ß 9/3/93
(c) 1993 Sam Leventer
Description
~~~~~~~~~~~
Honto is a program that helps you identify an unknown filetype. Its name
comes from the Japanese word meaning really, or truely. This is because
Honto is not mislead by an incorrect extension; It tells you what a file
really is. Honto colors a file's listing, depending on its type, tells you
what type of file it is, and optionally displays extra information.
One situation where you might need a program like this is if you have a
large number of backup files, all with the extension .BAK, some created with
PKLite, some with GIFLite, others backups from your paint program, other
backups from your word processor, etc... and you need to restore these
backups. Rather than going through a trial and error process in each program,
you can simply type HONTO *.BAK, and find out what each file is. Or, if a
file comes with a couple WHATEVER.000, WHATEVER.001, etc..., and you are
curious as to what type of files those are, simply type HONTO *.0*.
Another usage of Honto would be as replacement for the DIR command. Honto
is designed to look identical to the DIR command, except for including extra
information on the right side of the screen, and coloring files depending on
their filetype. Keep in mind that Honto differs from the DIR command in that
it must be passed *.* to display all files. If you do not specify a fileset,
Honto will display its help screen. Also, Honto currently does not handle
relative paths (ie ..\backups\*.bak), so you must specify the complete path.
Honto also differs from DIR in that directories are not listed, as they are
not really files.
If a file has an extension that Honto recognizes as not matching the
standard extension for that filetype, such as if a ZIP file has been renamed
to .QWK, then the file's current extension will be displayed in lower case.
This will draw your attention to files with incorrect extensions. The correct
file description will still appear beside the directory listing.
Honto displays files in different colors depending on the type of file that
it is. The following chart shows the colors:
Archives....... Bright Blue
Programming.... Dark Blue
Pictures....... Red
Sound.......... Magenta
Executables.... White
Text........... Gray
Unknown files.. Gray
This grouping was done so that you could easily pick out related files.
Command line switches
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you specify /E, for extra, then (with certain types of files), Honto will
give you extra information. The chart below shows which filetypes contain
extra information. I tried to come to a reasonable trade-off between amount
of information and time to retrieve it. Specifying /E should not slow Honto
down unreasonably, except in the case of new GIFs. The GIF 89a format is
very flexible, and to find comments and application blocks, almost the whole
file must be scanned.
Normally, direct screen writes are used, for color support. However, if you
need to re-direct the output, direct screen writes will not work. To solve
this problem, use /B, for Black and white output. If you have speech software,
or other specialty software that needs to trap information being written to
the screen, it will be able to trap output when /B is used.
Specifying /P will pause the screen every time it fills up. This way you
can easily view large directorys, without keeping your finger on the pause
key. (Note that ^S will not pause the display, unless /B is used)
Command line switches do not actually need to be preceded by a '/' or '-',
but you may include those switch characters if you want to, since most other
programs require them. Also, a space may be put between options, if you wish.
The following are all CORRECT uses of Honto:
HONTO C:\GIFS\*.GIF /EPB
HONTO D:\DOWNLOAD\*.* E B
HONTO ..\*.bak -p
HONTO *.0* -p /E
HONTO *.* EP
The following are INCORRECT uses of Honto:
HONTO /E *.*
HONTO /P
HONTO *.GIF *.PCX /E ; Note: This format will be supported soon
Notes
~~~~~
Note: For some file types, there is no reliable way to identify files. This
shows nothing but a lack of foresight by the designer of the file format. For
example, Amiga modules (music files) have no ID information whatsoever. There
is no quick way to identify the file as a .MOD, and I felt that speed was more
important than searching the file for correct sample information. For some
other file types, notably .COM files, the detection is not too reliable. In
general, if Honto says "probably", it means just that.
Beta Note
~~~~~~~~~
ßeta Note: This version .96, is the first version of Honto that I am
releasing to the public. It has now been tested reasonably, and works in
every situation that I can construct. In a very few cases, mostly involving
files smaller than 16 bytes, it may still abort with a run-time error. The
full release version will be made more "bullet-proof."
As I do not run windows, OS/2 or any extended OS, I have been able to fully
test the extended .EXE information on windows or OS/2 executables. If you
run OS/2 or windows, please let me know of any problems/inconsistencies with
extra information on executables.
If you notice any problems / run-time errors, please notify me of them.
This software can only be improved with YOUR feedback.
Registration
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since this version is only a Beta, payment is not required for the Beta
period. What this means is that you may use this software without paying,
ONLY until version 1.00 is released. Since you may not know if version 1.00
has come out, this version may also be legally used only until January 1st,
1994. However, I would still appreciate it if you let me know that you are
evaluating this software, either by sending a postcard to my address, or by
sending netmail to me. Once version 1.00 comes out, you MUST pay for
continued use of the software.
Copyrights
~~~~~~~~~~
All program code and data, including this Documentation file, are
copyrighted 1993 by Sam Leventer.
GIF is a trademark of Compu$erve, an H&R Block company.
PC Paintbrush is a trademark of Z-Soft, Inc.
Turbo Pascal is a trademark of Borland International.
PKZip is a trademark of PKWare.
Word Perfect is a trademark of the Word Perfect Corp.
ARJ is copyright R.K. Jung.
Contacting Me
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Snail mail:
Sam Leventer
42 Oakdale Dr.
Rochester, NY 14618-1120
E-Mail:
FidoNet- 1:2613/313 (Knight Moves)
Internet- sam.leventer.f1.z2613.n313@fidonet.org
Current list of files Honto can Identify
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extra Versions that
info ext Honto knows
---- --- -------------
X ZIP : All versions
X ARJ : All versions
ARC : All versions
X TPU : Turbo Pascal v4.0-7.0 (all)
OVR : All versions I could find
OBJ : Microsoft/Intel format
X WPD : Word Perfect 5.x only
WRD : Word v5.5
TXT : N/A
PAS : Programs & units
C : N/A
ANS : N/A
X PCX : All versions
X GIF : All versions
X BMP : All versions
X WAV : N/A
X VOC : N/A
X EXE : N/A
COM : Most .COM files I could find
SYS : Most .SYS files I could find